The Drones are Coming! Will the Fourth Amendment Stop Their Threat to Our Privacy?

The use of drones in military operations has become very public. What is less known is that local police have also begun to use drones and are planning to expand their use of to survey communities for criminal activity. On February 14, 2012, President Obama signed the "FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012" into law; it requires the FAA to expedite the process to authorize both public and private use of drones in the national navigable airspace.The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects our privacy from unreasonable intrusions by the government and we have come to depend on that. Over the years, we have learned to cherish our privacy. It is probably our most cherished "possession". However, today in the 21st Century, it seems that our privacy has been eroded to the point that it is practically non-existent. And now, we are suddenly faced with silent monitors in the sky that can observe everything we do in any area exposed to the sky. Carried to an extreme, we would not be able to enjoy any privacy in even secluded and fenced-in backyard. Will the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Amendment stop the drones from eliminating more of our privacy?The dicta in the very recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Jones re. GPS monitoring of cars in public suggests that some of the justices may in the future adopt a different approach to Katz’s Reasonable Expectation of Privacy (REP) test.This paper will explore the ramification of that decision and those dicta as they may foretell the future Fourth Amendment limitations that the Court will impose on drone surveillance.